Debate: Release Terrorists for the Sake of One Soldier?

Heads of the Terror Victims Association & the Gilad Shalit Action Committee debate the price for the release of the kidnapped IDF soldier.

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Elad Benari, 06/06/11 08:03 | updated: 04:12

IDF soldier Gilad Shalit

Israel news photo: screenshot of Hamas video

Meir Indor, head of the Algamor Terror Victims Association, and Shimshon Liebman, Chairman of the Gilad Shalit Action Committee, debated one another over the price that Israel should pay for the release of Gilad Shalit. In the following video, INN TV brings you some of the highlights of the debate:

“We have to know how to conduct raids and how to refrain from making foul-ups during those raids,” Liebman said during the debate. “But if one of our soldiers has been taken captive and these prices are placed before us in terms of releasing prisoners, we must release them.”

He added that “so long as there is hatred between the two sides, the potential for terror will be there. I say that Judea, Samaria and Gaza are full of terrorists. Not all the Arabs are terrorists, but these areas are full of terrorists and replacements for those who are in prison. The reason that there is no terror today is that the situation is different now than it was during the Jibril agreement. Terrorists have a hard time coming from Gaza. This time period is completely different.”

Contrary to Liebman’s position, Indor argued that terrorists should be caught one by one, and noted that “when they sit in prison there’s less terror. When they’re outside of prison there’s more terror. That’s the equation.”

He added that the campaign for the release of Gilad Shalit “is destroying Israel’s stalwartness, pitting the individual against the general public.”

Liebman said that Israel’s strength is in the way it treats human life, and noted that this is something that even Gaza residents see. Indor responded by saying, “If you say that 1,000 terrorists will be released, the question is not how many will be killed but only who will be killed. Whom in your family are you willing to sacrifice for Gilad Shalit?”

Liebman responded by calling Indor’s words a “horror tactic” and added: “As far as I’m concerned and as far as many security officials who have spoken out are concerned, this is nonsense and there’s no connection between these and other acts of terrorism and those people who are currently in prison and who would be released.”

“I think Israeli society should do some soul searching about whether we’ll be able to run a country in the face of terrorist blackmail,” concluded Indor. “As Shimshon said, they read us! I’m taking this claim in the opposite direction: since they read us, we have to put an end to it. As we see it, anybody who committed an act of terror needs to sit in prison until their last day.”